Archive for August, 2008

Daddy left this morning on a tall trip. I sure am going to miss him. Don’t worry, Daddy, whenever I feel like I need “guy time,” I’ll store it up in a box and save it for when you get back. Watch out, cause we’ll have a lot of catching up to do. It might even call for an entire day or two of guy time.

When Daddy told me he was going to be gone for a bit, I got kinda concerned. What if Mommy and I want to sing songs to Jesus? Who will play guitar for us? It’s a good thing I shared my feelings with him because he realized that he should pass the torch to me. Being the “sing songs to Jesus” guitar player is a big deal. I feel really honored that he is trusting me with that role.

Since Daddy agreed to teach me all his “sing songs to Jesus” skills, he asked me for a favor too. Sure, Daddy, the sky’s the limit. He wondered if I could hold out on doing anything new while he’s gone. Hmmm…that’s a toughy because sometimes those milestones come at me with no warning. But you know what? I’m going to do my best. There are a couple more teeth coming through, but I think I’ll stop growing them for a couple weeks. They can just stay where they are. Crawling? Well, I’m not really in a hurry. I can probably wait. Daddy, you try not to do anything new too, k?

Sometimes when I’m taking a bath, I can easily get carried away. I’m splishing and splashing and singing about Saturday nights when all of a sudden I look at the clock and it’s been a ton of minutes. Shocking, I know. It’s just too hard to always keep an eye on the clock when your other eye is so busy trying to find new things to welcome into the bath water. Therefore, I’ve developed a new method. It’s called the “How are the toes?” test. Every couple of minutes I simply reach down to my toes and feel how far they’ve progressed. The spectrum is smooth and barely wet to raiseny and overbathed. By regularly reaching down, I can easily decipher when the bath should come to a close.

Solid food? I still don’t really like it all that much. However, I’ve come appreciate some of its not so obvious benefits. Let’s take an avocado for example. Sure, it tastes yucky, but when used as a type of swamp/outdoor greenery camouflage, it’s transformed into a very usable item.

But, please be prepared for the backlash. Not everyone understands these controversial ideas. Let’s think of a hypothetical situation. Your mommy might just turn around and be startled by your appearance. Before she says anything, the best course of action is to also appear startled. Yeah, how did this avocado get all over me anyway?

When she hears the surprise in your voice, her first response will probably be disbelief/anger toward the ridiculous avocado. In this case, put on your best innocent face.

But, please, don’t think you’re off the hook. Mommies are smarter than your average bear. She’ll soon get that look that says, “Wait a second. I know what’s really going on here.” At this point just go with the flow. Start to develop your plan of action. If you’re anything like me, I need a couple of seconds to develop that plan. In the meantime, use a neutral look like this. It doesn’t really say anything and will buy you some time.

Really, it’s inevitable that you’re found out. I have two pieces of advice.
1. Quickly formulate your best “I’m really sorry” face.

2. Don’t waste any time, and wow her with some of your best skills. Pictured here: Double-handed fly catching.

Love song to Michigan: I think the sun shines brighter when I’m around you, dear Michigan. You make my eyes squint up out of my love love, dear Michigan.

copyright 2008 BabyBear Music

Two Grandpas and one Grandma all grew up on a farm. I guess you could say it’s in my blood. That’s why when I sat down in this barn grass, I knew exactly what to do. Look around, find the perfect piece of grass, examine it to make sure it’s worthy, and the prepare it for the task at hand.

And, then you stick it in between your lips. At first you might be somewhat unsure of yourself. Why am I holding a piece of grass in my mouth? But, then you rest assured in the fact that farmers throughout the centuries have carried on this tradition. What’s the purpose? Sometimes you just have to do things kinda as a name badge. This tells people what you do for a living, that you have grass taming skills, and that you like the smell of cows.

I know, I know, I’ve been traveling a lot this summer. But, it’s all for a good cause. This time my good cause is Great Grandmas. You’re probably wondering what makes a grandma a normal one or a great one. Unfortunately, I can’t offer much more than the great ones seem to be older. I guess that makes sense. Now that I think about it, the longer I’m a baby the greater I feel too.

I was going to surprise GG with my amazing middle-finger/ring-finger pulse taking skills. At the last moment GG turned her head and I got her in the mouth. We were both pretty startled. But, then we burst out laughing. Phew! That could’ve been quite an awkward moment.

I’m really surprised this picture of Great Grandma and me turned out so well. I held the camera out as far as I could, but I didn’t expect to get such a good frame.

Does this face tell you anything? Let me just say this, I’m considering entering my nose for the world record in snot production. What does this have to do with the weather? Well, I’m under it, and it’s just no fun.

The upside – More luvey time with Mommy and Daddy. A person seems to get extra cuddling privileges in this state. I’m okay with that.
The downside – Nose wiping is my arch enemy. Whoever invented that introduced a very poopy thing into our beautiful world. Note to Hollywood: This is definitely a subject worthy of a documentary. Sometimes you have to be willing to ruffle some feathers. Now is one of those times.

I want to dedicate this movie to all those babies out there who have to take medicine, don’t want to, but don’t have the skills to resist. Watch and learn.

By the way, you will notice at the end of the movie that Mommy finally coaxed the medicine into my mouth. Please know that I let that happen. I could have resisted for 16 hours if I needed to. I just love Mommy too much to let that happen.